Radio Curious » Mendocino County

Click here to begin listening. The ways different creatures, especially us humans, use our senses to guide ourselves through life has long attracted my curiosity. I’ve often wondered how blind people seem able to orient themselves, and also wondered about their dreams. From time to time, over the years, I would see an attentive woman […]

Click here to begin listening.  Alex De Grassi is a guitarist extraordinaire whose interpretation of the Radio Curious theme, entitled “The Last Cowboy”, you may hear if you listen carefully. In this edition of Radio Curious he asks us ‘What does a cumulous cloud sound like when played on guitar?’ Alex De Grassi will share […]

Click here to begin listening.  Spanish songs sung and played on guitar is something I have enjoyed beginning when I lived in Peru in the mid 1960′s. I often have the pleasure of listening to and talking with Marcos Pereda, a person who can do just that. Marcos was born in Cuba and made his […]

Click here to begin listening.  State guidelines for growing and possessing medical marijuana, were issued by the California Attorney General on August 25, 2008. In this edition of Radio Curious, we visit again with Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman, who participated in the development of these guidelines, to discuss their implementation. This interview was recorded […]

Click here to begin listening.  On the bluffs of the Village of Mendocino, overlooking the Pacific Ocean about 155 miles north of San Francisco, California, the sounds of the Mendocino Music Festival are heard for two weeks beginning in early July every year. The music festival features Orchestra, Opera, Chamber, Jazz and World Pop music […]

Click here to begin listening. To Kill or Not To Kill: That is the question still presented to juries in capital cases in the United States, one of the few countries remaining in the world to employ the death penalty. In this edition of Radio Curious, we visit with Pastor Carroll Pickett, who served as […]

Click here to begin listening.  Few people in Mendocino County who are not elected officials have created as much enmity and as many disruptive relationships as has Richard W. Johnson, Jr., the owner, editor and publisher of four local newspapers under the banner of Mendocino Country, since 1984. Johnson, who characterizes himself as a community […]

Click here to begin listening. Can rural, local government actually run smoothly and meet the changing needs of the community?  It is slow to happen in Mendocino County, California.  In this two part interview about the politics and development possibilities in Mendocino County, specifically in the North end of Ukiah, where a large shopping center […]

Click here to begin listening. Can rural, local government actually run smoothly and meet the changing needs of the community?  It is slow to happen in Mendocino County, California.  In this two part interview about the politics and development possibilities in Mendocino County, specifically in the North end of Ukiah, where a large shopping center […]

Click here to begin listening. Years ago, before the myriad of things to buy were as available as they are now, retail businesses were most often locally-owned and operated, often for generations. This all began to change in the middle of the last century, as many of the items in the Sears Catalogue became available in […]

Click here to begin listening.  In this edition of Radio Curious, our guest is Dan Hamburg, a long time political activist, a former member of the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors and a former member of Congress who represented the North Coast of California. In our conversation, recorded in the studio of Radio Curious on […]

Click here to begin listening.  In the continuing saga of marijuana politics in Mendocino County, we visit with Sheriff Tom Allman to talk about what has happened since our last visit in June 2007.  We discuss the uncertainty of the existing marijuana laws in Mendocino County, the prospects for change based on the upcoming June […]

Click here to begin listening.  Mike Thompson represents the First Congressional District of California, including the North Coast and Mendocino County, the home of Radio Curious, in the United States House of Representatives. In this interview recorded in his Washington, D.C. office on October 11, 2007, we discuss the war, its funding, medicare, marijuana and […]

Click here to begin listening. Should a shopping mall and a large residential development occur adjacent to the city of Ukiah, California? The city and many people fear this development will result in the loss of a unique, rural small town in northern California.  Mendocino County Supervisor Jim Wattenburger discusses his position in support of […]

Click here to begin listening.  The concept that all politics are local is shown in this interview with Mendocino County Supervisor John Pinches in our August 7, 2007 interview on growing, use and “legalization” of marijuana.    

Click here to begin listening.  In this edition we discuss the “No Match” rule established by the Bush administration on August 10th, 2007. If a person is employed and the employer sends in the employment payment records with a social security number that doesn’t match the name on the social security number according to the […]

Click here to begin listening.  Contrary to the five to zero decision by the Ukiah City Council recommending a No Vote, Mendocino County Supervisor Jim Wattenburger, whoes district solely comprises the City of Ukiah, voted yes creating a board majority to further investigate the development of a major shopping center adjacent to Ukiah, a small, […]

Click here to begin listening.  The Anderson Valley Advertiser is an iconoclastic newspaper originating weekly from Boonville, Mendocino County, California, edited and published by Bruce Anderson, whose name is merely coincidental with the name of the Anderson Valley. The masthead of the AVA, as it is sometimes called, says, “Newspapers should have no friends,” and […]

Click here to begin listening. This program was originally broadcast on June 19, 2007. Marijuana, some say, is on the lips of many people here in Mendocino County, California, and likely many other places throughout the world, to some with pleasure and to others with distaste. Nonetheless it doesn’t seem that marijuana will go away. […]

Click here to begin listening.  Originally Broadcast: November 29, 2006 After District Attorney Norm Vroman died in September, 2006, and his name could not removed from the ballot, Keith Faulder, the interim DA appointed by the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, sued the County seeking to void the November 8, 2006 general election for DA […]

Click here to begin listening.  Originally Broadcast: August 30, 2006 Walking Tractor And Other Tales of Old Anderson Valley Stories of the days that no longer exist in rural areas tell us how things were, how people worked, lived and played, and bring to life conditions that most of us never knew existed. “Walking Tractor and […]

Click here to begin listening.  Originally Broadcast: April 17, 2006 Storycatcher: Making Sense of Our Lives though the Power and Practice of Story Story is the heart of language. Story moves us to love and hate and can motivate us to change the whole course of our lives. Story can lift us beyond the borders […]

Click here to begin listening.  When recruiters from the Armed Forces of the United States seek out volunteers, they often portray military life to be a great adventure. They talk of schooling, travel and excitement. Sometimes that is not the case. In this edition of Radio Curious, we visit Sgt. Frank Pacino, who spent his early life in […]

Click here to begin listening.  Each of the 435 members of the House of Representatives in the United States Congress represents approximately 680,000 people, and is elected every two years. Mike Thompson is in his 4th term representing California’s 1st Congressional District that includes the northwest coast of California. Congressman Thompson visited the studios of Radio Curious […]

Click here to begin listening. How can we assure ourselves that the food we eat is safe, nutritious and energy-efficient? If we are what we eat, we ought to know what we will become. That may be the concept underlying what is coming to be known as the slow food movement. Glenn McGourty is the […]

Click here to begin listening.  The Territory of Men “The Territory of Men” is an intimate self-expose written by Joelle Fraser, a former Mendocino Community College English teacher. Written as a series of short episodes and adventures, Joelle shares the life of a woman who was raised in the hippie life of the 70s, and now […]

Click here to begin listening.  Earl Dixon is a veteran traveler, a veteran piano player, and he’s actually a veteran, too. An interesting story. Earl Dixon, the man on this show, traveled around the world, and has a lot of familiar stories to tell to those of us here in Mendocino County. Originally Broadcast: June 11, 2002

Click here to begin listening Bill Zacha, the leading force behind the creation of the Mendocino Art justify was a person with vision and moxie and one who made a dream come true. In August 1957, Bill Zacha, was a young married teacher and lived near San Francisco. On a short trip to the village […]

Click here to begin listening Grace Carpenter Hudson was known as the painter-lady in her hometown of Ukiah, CA. She started her career as a painter when she was a teenager in the 1870s. By the time of her death in 1937, she had produced over 600 canvas paintings and numerous other works. Her skills […]

Click here to begin listening Our guest in this edition of Radio Curious is Anthony Adams, Esq., is currently, among other things, a Deputy Public Defender in Mendocino County, California. He’s also poet, formerly a California State Parole Commissioner, and served in the California State Assembly. At a local Bar Association gathering, Adams recited his […]

Click here to begin listening To assist in the consideration of the impact of Martin Luther King, Jr. on the United States, I invited my friend Orell Massey to join us again here at Radio Curious.  In February 2014, when Massey first visited us he shared his experiences as the first and, so far, the […]

Click here to begin listening The California coastal redwood trees are some of the oldest living things in the world. Other than cutting the tree down, the best way to determine their age, or the age of any tree is with an incremental borer. That’s a long narrow tube twisted into the tree from the […]

Click here to begin listening Radio Curious discusses the funeral industry in the United States with the owner of a mortuary in a rural northern California town. As professionals describe their work and philosophy, George Leinen, owner of Empire Mortuary in Ukiah, California since 2000, joins us in this edition of Radio Curious to share […]

Theatre as a commentary on the condition of society is the subject of this edition of Radio Curious.  The topic is the relationship of police and black men in America in 2015.  Our guest is Michael Gene Sullivan, the resident playwright, director and a principal actor in “2015: Freedomland,” this year’s production by the San […]

Cultures that have no written language pass on their histories through oral traditions. The stories are the way that social values and traditions are taught by one generation to the next. Animals often play a significant character role in these stories. In the Native American traditions of the northwest part of California, the coyote is […]

Cultures that have no written language pass on their histories through oral traditions. The stories are the way that social values and traditions are taught by one generation to the next. Animals often play a significant character role in these stories. In the Native American traditions of the northwest part of California, the coyote is […]

The creative imagination of playwright Don Samson is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious.  In May 2015, I had the good fortune of seeing a ten minute play entitled “Blind Date,” written by my long time friend, who lives in nearby Willits, California.  For many years prior to becoming a playwright, Don Samson […]

In this edition of Radio Curious we honor and pay tribute to folk singer Ronnie Gilbert, who died on June 6, 2015 at the age of 88. She is well known for her powerful contralto voice as a member of the Weavers, the extraordinarily popular folk music quartet that in 1950s and 1960s. She also […]

We all know that there are various forms of air pollution that affect our health and the health of our environment, but what do we really breathe? What is in the air that we breathe? In this archive edition of Radio Curious, recorded in the Radio Curious studios on January 9, 2009 we visit with […]

The secret revealed in the life of Lacey Schwartz, born in 1987 to a white Jewish family in rural upstate New York, where she grew up, is that her biological father was black.  The few who knew her truth remained silent until after her first year of college when she asked her mother why she […]

We continue our discussion of racism and white privilege in Mendocino County, California, with a 30 year old Brazilian born woman,  who is currently studying for a master’s degree in social work at the California State University at Hayward. Jaciara Bayer was adopted and brought to the United States at age 11 months by her […]

Radio Curious continues our conversation about racial discrimination, cultural gender norms and expected behaviors.  Our guest, Josanna Kiggins, is a parent, student, singer, singing and cultural education teacher, and a medical receptionist.  A native of Salvador, Brazil Josanna has lived here in Ukiah, California, for 30 years.  She’s someone I’ve known almost that long.     […]

The experience of immigrating, at age 13, to America from Nairobi, Kenya, and bringing the traditional roots of her ancestors’ lives from the remote village of the Meru people of northeast Kenya, are the stories told in this edition of Radio Curious by our guest Brenda Mbaabu. She shares her tribal legends, family background, and […]

Radio Curious continues its series racism in a conversation with Bill Durham, a 59 year old black man, originally from Ohio who grew up in family of civil rights activists and now lives in Mendocino County, California.  We explore the effects of racism in the United States and how to end it.  Bill Durham, works […]

Radio Curious continues our series on racism in Mendocino County, California. Our guest is Mendocino County Deputy Sheriff Orell Massey who, for the past 20 years has been the only black law enforcement officer in the county’s history.  A native of South Carolina, Deputy Massey was a 21 year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps […]

Our guest on this edition of Radio Curious is Deputy Sheriff Orell Massey—a black man, native of South Carolina and a 20 year veteran of the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department. He is also a 21 year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps where he was assigned to the Embassy detail.  When I asked Sheriff Massey […]

Bill Bracewell, a doctor of physical therapy practicing in Ukiah, California, for over 35 years, is our guest on this edition of Radio Curious.  He and I visited in the Radio Curious studios on December 15, 2014.  We begin with Dr. Bracewell’s description of physical therapy:  maximize, restore and maintain range of movement.  The book […]

For this edition of Radio Curious, broadcast at the beginning of our 25th year on the air, I invited my friend John Gravois to interview me about my experiences, reflections and thoughts over the past 24 years that I’ve been the host and producer of Radio Curious.  John Gravois is the deputy editor of Pacific […]

John Steinbeck’s novel, “East of Eden” was published September 1952 and the movie-made soon thereafter-is the subject of this edition of Radio Curious. Our guest is Bruce Levene, author of “James Dean in Mendocino: The Filming of East of Eden.” The Mendocino Film Festival will screen “East of Eden” on Friday, November 21 and Sunday, […]

California wildfires present a serious public safety concern, create fear of serious loss for many and cost millions of dollars to fight. In California each fire is given a name, as is done for hurricanes. We devote this edition of Radio Curious, to the Lodge Fire that occurred in Mendocino County, California in August 2014. […]